Emmys 2018: Game of Thrones Leads Creative Arts Wins, Apple Bags First

Game of Thrones was the (tied) winner at the 2018 Creative Arts Emmys over the weekend, picking up seven wins from its 15 nominations, as it helped its network HBO beat out Netflix by a single award. Meanwhile, Apple bagged its first Emmy for original content thanks to Carpool Karaoke.

The 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which recognise technical achievements such as cinematography, directing, music, and production design in addition to others, took place on September 8-9 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The Television Academy has also included guest acting and a few programme awards in recent years to raise the event’s profile.

After missing out on the 2017 ceremony thanks to its delayed season 7 run, Game of Thrones returned this year in style, winning in seven categories including costumes, music composition, production design, prosthetic make-up, sound mixing, special visual effects, and stunt coordination. It was the first win for composer Ramin Djawadi and the show’s sixth for VFX. The HBO show was tied for wins with Saturday Night Live.

Game of Thrones’ seven awards helped propel HBO to a total of 17, including three for Westworld season 2. That meant it narrowly beat out Netflix, which picked up 16 wins at the 2018 Creative Arts ceremony with three for The Crown, two awards apiece for Black Mirror’s “USS Callister”, GLOW and Queer Eye, alongside contributions from Stranger Things, Wild Wild Country, and Godless.

While Apple has previously won Emmys for technical achievements – an Emmy Engineering Award in 2001 for developing FireWire, and another in 2017 for integrating Siri into Apple TV – the win for Apple Music’s Carpool Karaoke: The Series in ‘Short Form Variety Series’ is the first for content.

Other notable wins include three apiece for The Handmaid’s Tale and Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and one each for Rick and Morty (best animated programme) and Blue Planet II (best narrator for David Attenborough).

Emmy Nominations 2018: Game of Thrones, Netflix Lead the Way

The main event, the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards aka the 2018 Emmys, will take place at the same venue on September 17. It will present the remaining, biggest awards: best comedy, drama, lead acting, writing, and directing among others.